Red beans and rice

Ever had a moment that you suddenly wanted to eat better? Add different foods to your diet and expand away from the usual menu? Well T and I decided to try and add more thigns like beans to our diet. The boy seems to really like beans and it is easy for him to pick up and eat, so here I sit with the interweb at my fingertips and foodtv, allrecipes and many more calling to me again.

I am improvising the recipe to suit our family and our tastes. Though T and I would love to have a super spicy rich andouille sausage filled recipe, the boy might have issues with too much spice.

We will see how this works out.




YUM!
This is what I went with and it was awesome! Both T and the boy loved it!

1 can drained and rinsed kidney beans
1 can drained and rinsed black beans
5 cups chicken stock
1 coil of farmers sausage
2 mild italian sausages
1/2 spanish onion chopped
1 handful of chopped green peppers (the frozen ones I had in my freezer, probably about 1/2 a pepper)
1/2 cube of garlic (I get the big bag of peeled garlic from the grocery store, throw it in the food processor to mince it, and freeze it with a little olive oil into icecube trays and pull them out when needed)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon cumin

I chopped the sausage into chunks and browned the outside in a little olive oil. I left the oil in the pan and put the sausage into a crockpot with the beans. I put the onion and peppers into the pan and cooked them for about 4 minutes. I put the cube of garlic in and mixed it around until melted. I put the whole mess into the crockpot and added the stock and the spices.
I turned the pot on high and left it for about 3 hours. It didn't thicken up as much as I wanted it to, so I put the beans into a pot on the stove. I mashed some of the beans up to release the starch and cooked on medium high for about 20 minutes and it thickened up nicely. Either I can try to leave the beans in the crockpot longer or just make this a stovetop recipe, but slowcookers are just so wonderful!
I made a pot of rice, maybe 2 servings.
Put the rice on the bottom and the beans on top. It was good. It filled me up but I didn't feel sick full. It is something I will add to my list of crappy winter day recipes. With the tomato free zone, winter recipes are a pain, but this is good stuff!